The new reality orientation of TV has changed what people find as exciting.  People want more information from
their viewing time.  They don't want so anymore to just see made up Hollywood stories, they want to learn about
something that is more a view of "reality."   For anyone in the music business the road is the reality, sound checks

are reality, hotel rooms and truck stops are reality.  Hanging on the bus for hours upon hours is the reality...

 

A very interesting part of the music business and the entertainment business itself is the life on the road.  I am not

only talking about life on the road the way young popular artists like Justin Bieber and Keith Sweat do it, but real

troubadour life on the road.  The weeks and months living in the tour busses, load in and set up of the sound and

lighting equipment, and many of the other elements that are put in place the day of a big concert to make it happen

and become entertainment for the ticket buyers is a big part of the music business itself.  Most of the troubadours

of today the years past travel the U.S. in their busses.  Much of our show will take place on and around these

wagons that move music down the white lines...

The concert business is a very key element to the music business overall.   Not only is it a place where really most of
the acts make their money, but the concert tours are what actually boost the music sales for a certain artist or record
label.  The artist CD sales go up during the days of pre concert hype, and the days shortly after their gig.  Now, we
also have the fact that many artist are having to go out on the road to make money, in that the Internet has caused
many of the big music labels to shut down their A & R departments, labels are merging and the sales of music CDs
are at a all time low.

"Living on the bus, Fleck concedes, "isn't for everybody.  It's tight in there, and it's a real party
all the time.  You have to be OK with that."  On a plane, you have to get up very early after
staying up very late and sit in an uncomfortable chair for a long time.  On a bus, you sit around
and watch TV or lay down in your own bunk."  Bela Fleck

We will show the viewer the experience of the plans that it takes to build a tour from the time the artist meet with the producers to design the feel, the stage, the lighting and sound and other elements of the show.  These huge stages are built by companies then packed in several 18-wheeler trucks to move the stage lighting, sound and equipment from  city to city.  This is a great visual...with fun shots in the truck stops, diners, hotels and other stops along the way.

Three of Merle Haggard's buses behind theater in Arizona

Three of Mr. "On The Road Again" himself  Willie Nelson's buses parked backstage at Merle Haggard's UFO Music Fest.

 

Earnest Tubb's bus

Johnny Cash said about his bus, Unit One:   "I have a home that takes me anywhere I want to go, that cradles and comforts me, that lets me nod off in the mountains and wake up on the plains, my bus, of course... When I make it off the plane and through another airport, the site of that big black MCI waiting by the curb sends waves of relief through me." "Myself, I've lived out here so long and know it all so well that I can wake up any- where in the United States, glance out the bus window, and pinpoint my position to within five miles...Like the song says, I've been everywhere, man. Twice.

During and around sound check we will set and talk with different folks that are part of the show from roadies,
truck and bus drivers, the entertainers themselves, and some of the support crew like guitar and drum techs,
caterers, promoters and T-shirt sales guys.  ON THE ROAD will show some of the logistics of getting the acts
from the hall to  the hotel rooms and then back to the venue again.  We will record and show the pre show
excitement as the people  begin to file into the concert halls and then the excitement of the band and crew
before the show.

 

I got a big bus with a TV and a bar and a little Room in the back for me and my ole guitar Gotta stop and fuel up every five hundred miles Give a picture to the waitress eat a little breakfast country styleThat's my life and I love it... We get home to Nashville on a Monday night Record songs on Tuesday and on Wednesday take out the wife. But then on Thursday night it's back on the road I don't care if it's Montana or down in Louisiana just as long as I goThat's my life and I love it...    Hank Williams, Jr.

 

"We're on the road babe!  It's heavy stuff.  New blood, new places, new faces...we're getting our first taste of what the future holds in store:  A steady diet of greasy burgers  and cardboard in-flight dinners, burrowing from one backstage bunker to another  through interchangeable airport lounges and indistinguishable hotel rooms.   Rock Skully and David Dalton          LIVING WITH THE DEAD

"On the road again Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway We're the best of friends Insisting that the world be turnin' our way And our way Is on the road again Just can't wiat to get on the road again The life I love is makin' music with my friends And I can't wait to get on the road again."                                   Willie Nelson and Family

 

BELOW SEE PICS FROM THE ORIGINAL PIONEER TROUBADOUR TOUR   The ole boys with Stars   See the Guitar Pull   Autographs & Interviews   Pics of the ole boys   FlashBack Stage

Click the Troubadour to see more on the road...

MERLE HAGGARD IN CARMEL BY THE SEA   The Series Stage Two   THE FLASHBACK STAGE   TROUBADOUR PICTURES   from 60tys to the 90tys   TONY BENNET to HAGGARD to MIRANDA LAMBERT